Sunday, December 28, 2008

Well Christmas is out of the way and everyone seemed to have liked their loomed gifts, the bells were especially loved by everyone, my mom asked me to make some for her new sister-in-laws and a couple of other people. I'll be running them to Chicago this week.

Now that Christmas is over I am working on a new lacy shawl pattern I've come up with myself. So far it is taking shape very nicely. Once it is finished I'll post a picture and write up the pattern for it. I'm not sure if it will be a free pattern or not, but it won't be expensive. I have a few other things I want to try out as well, but will work on this shawl first.

Health wise things are much better now, the pain is mostly gone unless I over due things. I should be returning to work on January 12, 2009. I can hardly wait as I am beginning to go a little stir crazy staying home all the time. Looming has been keeping me somewhat sane but it certainly isn't helping with finances as unemployment hasn't decided if they will be giving me any money yet.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you will all have a bright and wondrous New Year!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Thought I would type an update since I'm currently not being very active in the groups I belong to. I'm still on the road to recovery. Should be able to drive starting this weekend or early next week. I'm still waiting for my employment benefits to start paying. I don't understand why the government has to be so slow but yet as soon as you get a job you have to start paying into the government taxes, too bad we could say oh well I think I will make the government wait for 2 weeks before they can apply to take my taxes off oh and since they don't have enough hours they can't take any off -- lol!

I am still looming up a storm. Since I've been home from the hospital I've made a few Victorian Lace Christmas balls, a couple more Knifty Bells, an Eyeglass case for my mil's boyfriend and a scarf for my my new step-father.

I am currently working on towel toppers and wash clothes. Only 7 nights left then it will be the big day. My mom is suppose to be coming on the 19th but the weather sounds as if it may prevent that guess I will have to wait and see what Friday brings.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very blessed New Year!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

I know it has been a few days, but nothing much has happened since I last posted. I did loom a mobius shawl for my 19 year old daughter to wear to her fiance's Christmas party and today I finished up an angel for my co-worker and two bells for my boss' kids for Christmas. Since I won't be back to work until after the holidays I figured I better get something together for work as Tuesday will be my last day until sometime in January.

I still have my daily pain, but for the most part my cold is gone except for the occasional cough, but it isn't nearly as bad as it was last week.

Okay I am off to try to make myself a new pair of slippers for the hospital as the red ones I made are a little light for wandering around in.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Just a quick little note to let anyone reading know that I am already feeling better and the cold is quickly disappearing thanks to the Echinilin that I take to boost my immune system. I still have a cough but that should be gone by the time I go to my pre-op appointment on November 25th.

I am working on creating a newborn bootie with a heel on the knifty flower loom. This is going to be just a basic pattern which I hope to develop further as I practice new stitches etc, but for now it is going to be a start in my pattern creations.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Wouldn't you know it. I get my surgery date all set up and this morning I wake up with a cold coming on. Only managed to work 6 1/2 hours today. Between the pain and the cold I just couldn't handle being there for longer than that.

I am going to go to bed early tonight and hopefully when I wake up I'll be feeling better.

I only managed to knit 2 more bells between last night and tonight so I may try to get another one or two done then I will head off to bed.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

These are just a sampling of what I've been working on since Sunday! So far I've done one angel, two wreaths, 3 bells and 10 candy canes. I really need to get working on my wreaths and bells though as I still need another 20 wreaths and 7 bells to give away for Christmas. I plan on making the wreaths as napkin holders / pins, so each family member can have one as a special little gift. Our families have grown too large to buy each other presents anymore but I still like to make sure everyone gets something, so this year it is going to be something I knitted, hopefully it will mean a little more than something purchased.

Well I went to the new doctor today. Seems this mass inside of me is really large, so large that I have to have a c-section to get rid of it. It seems that every day my belly gets larger and the doctor showed me with my hand where the mass was and how large it is. Feels larger than any of my kids were. I am guessing it is about 10 lbs or so as in August when I weighed my self I was around 122 or 123 lbs, today at the doctors office I weighed in at 137 lbs. I'm giving a few pounds as winter weight as i tend to gain around 5 lbs in the winter.

So today I let everyone know that on November 27th I will be in the hospital having surgery and by the sounds of it I will be there for 3 or 4 days, then I will be more or less house bound until the beginning or middle of January.

The good things about the above is once healed I shouldn't have all the pain I've been having for the past 7 or so weeks, and with all that time laying around healing I should be able to do some big time loom knitting. I have several Christmas items I want to get done and it is pretty hard to juggle kids, work and looming so this will give me the time I need to get things done for Christmas and maybe even some stuff for next Christmas too, lol!

I hope anyone reading this will help pray that the operation is as uneventful as possible!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Today was the start of the Christmas Ornament's class in the yahoo group "Loom Class". Here is a picture of the ornaments I've completed today. The bell was from a previous class but I didn't have the flower loom until this past Friday so I couldn't do the bell.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

This is a sample of the baby bunting / baby cocoon I created today in between knitting Brenda Myer's Christmas decorations for Loom Class at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LoomClass/. You can find the pattern on the right.

The one above was created for a 4 inch doll on the blue kk round loom.

I talked my hubby into taking me to Michigan yesterday! I went to the Joann's on Eureka Road and came home with the KK Flower Loom, the KK Spool Knitter, KK loom clips and some RR Symphony yarn (I wasn't going to get more yarn but who can turn down $1.00 each for 100 gram ball).

Now I can make Brenda Myer's Christmas decorations. I can hardly wait. I want to make some for all our family members.

Today I bought the yarn for them at my local Walmart as well as all kinds of little things to dress them up.

I just finished another shawl on my yellow KK round loom, but as it is a Christmas gift I can not post a picture.

Just wanted to share my excitement. I am off to create something on my new looms!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The looming bug has a really good hold on me. I've been working on the looms for several months now and I just seem to keep pumping stuff out. I'm really going to have to put my camera to work soon so I can get pics of everything I've created so far.

I recently created a ski mask for my son, but there were a few issues with it so I think once my Christmas knitting is done I will work those issues out and make a pattern for it for others to use. I'm pretty sure I am not the only one who gets requests for these cold weather items.

Since it seems Michaels in Canada doesn't like to bring in too many knitting looms, I created my own flower loom using the basic idea from Pam's blog: http://pamscraftsprojects.blogspot.com/ , she has some really creative ideas on how to make your own small looms. My version of the flower loom only cost around $3.00. I bought a roll of packing tape at the dollar store and I got 12 large cotter pins. Since my cotter pins were so big I couldn't hammer them into my packing tape like Pam did so I marked out where I wanted my pins to go then I used some masking tape to tape them to the packing tape. I'll be able to recycle this one day after I go to the USA and get myself a real flower loom but for now it is working pretty good as long as I am careful not to wrap too tight.

I am also working on making myself a small guage adjustable knitting board, hopefully I will have all my materials together soon. I got some wood yesterday, but I seem to be having issues find cotter pins in any great supply so when I go past a hardware store I've been stopping in and buying the ones that I can, so far I've gone to 4 different ones so I am starting to run out of options - there are still 2 more to try locally. If I can't get them there I will have to try Windsor.

**Update on Medical Condition: The anti-inflamatories didn't do one darn thing so I get to go see Dr. Gruneir now. My family doctor believes this mass is pulling down on my internal organs and that is what is causing me so much pain.

All I can say is this is rediculous - I have been having severe pain for the past 6 weeks, all I want is to get this fixed. I refuse to live like this much longer. My next dr's appointment is next Tuesday with the new doctor, hopefully this will get things moving along to get this fixed.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Well I guess I am not having a kidney problem, my doctor thinks I may have had a kidney stone that caused some swelling, but my ultrasound results say that there isn't one now. So I am now on some anti-inflammatory.

So far I've been on these new med since last Tuesday and I am still experiencing back pain, not as bad as before but still bad enough. The ultrasound did show a fibrous mass that may be causing this issue. I go back to see the doctor in November and if things have not improved he will be sending me to see someone else so we can figure out what to do about the mass they discovered and decide if it is the root of all this evil. (lol)

On another note I am continuing working on my loom knit Christmas gifts. I'd take a pic but I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone so I will wait to post pics until after the gifts have been given.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

No one told me that getting older would be such a pain. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being 30 again.

For some reason since I turned 40 my body had decided to turn against me. First I started pulling muscles in my shoulder and my neck causing migraine headaches to appear for days at a time and now I am having severe troubles with my left kidney, been on medications for 3 weeks now with no ease of the pain in my back.

On the up side my kids are growing up and I am able to go with my husband more often. He's a truck driver and travels from Ontario here to various East Coast locations in the U.S.A., mostly New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and sometimes Massachusetts.

I have 3 great kids, Cassie who is 19 years old, Tiffany who is 15 years old and Dustin who will be 14 in January. Of course they have their days when I don't think they are so great, but then one of them will say something that lets me know they are.

For instance my daughter Tiffany came home from school on Wednesday and said, "Mom if you need a new kidney you can have one of mine. I've thought about it all day and if you need it, it's yours." I was almost in tears.

Okay so now that I have my own blog I just need to try to figure out how to upload pictures and try to remember to post, lol. If anyone has any suggestions on how to find the time to post regularly feel free to send them over!

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About Me

If you are sharing a link to one of my patterns, please link to my blog rather than to the individual pattern.
I'm the wife of a truck driver, mother of 2 girls and 1 boy and the grandmother of one very sweet little boy.
I've been loom knitting for about 5 years, crocheting about 40 years, crafting since I can remember.
My grandfather use to take me out to the garage and let me play with his old hand drill or a hammer with a board of nails that I had to remove.